Teresa Graham Brett

Teresa Graham Brett lives her passion for creating social change by combining her work in social justice education with parenting. After graduating from law school, she opted to serve the cause of social change as an advocate, educator, and leader at three large public universities across the country. Her life was transformed after the births of two children. In spite of her espoused professional values, she realized that she had accepted, without question, the dominant cultural beliefs that adults have the right to control and coerce children. The children in her life have challenged her to live according to the values of liberation, freedom and respect as a parent and human being.

Using her experience in facilitating transformative learning, she began her own intensive learning journey. It led her to a deeper understanding that the ways our society treats children sets the foundation for all other forms of injustice. As a writer and consultant she works with other parents to do inner work as a foundation for outer action that ultimately liberates individuals, groups and communities. As individuals and a society we can create a base of love, wholeness, authenticity, and integrity that is the foundation for just and empowering relationships. And, as we are each reflections of the world, the world is changed by our commitment to wholeness, liberation, and freedom. Read more about Teresa’s work at www.ParentingforSocialChange.com

As a writer and consultant she works with other parents to do inner work as a foundation for outer action that ultimately liberates individuals, groups and communities. As individuals and a society we can create a base of love, wholeness, authenticity, and integrity that is the foundation for just and empowering relationships. And, as we are each reflections of the world, the world is changed by our commitment to wholeness, liberation, and freedom. Read more about Teresa’s work at www.ParentingforSocialChange.com

In preparation for the sessions Teresa will be hosting at RE this year, she started by asking herself three questions:

How do we move with and through fear to have the courage to be vulnerable?

How do we create deeper, more truthful, and honest relationships and communities that allow our true selves to be held, nurtured, and honored while we create room for others to do the same?

How do we take what we are most afraid of and bring it forward so that we can begin to live and create relationships that are whole-hearted, transformative, just, and affirming of our deepest needs as human beings?

From these question the Teresa was inspired to present on the following two topics:

Radical compassion for social justice

When faced with the anger of someone we have harmed, one important thing we can do to create healing, connection, and cultivate the ability to see ourselves in the other person, is being able to hold the space for that anger from the other person to come forth. Because for the person hurt or hurting, there is something transformative about connecting to the person whom we believed harmed us and having that individual open their hands and their heart and allow us to be exactly where we are at in our anger. This allows the emotions from hurt and pain to move through us and deepens our connection and relationship with the other. This kind of radical acceptance and compassion brings profound healing.

Freedom from the oppressor within

It is important to understand the ways we might be wounded or harmed, that the true freedom and liberation can arrive when we are willing to see the oppressor within. The ways in which we reenact injustice internally and the ways that it then comes out in relationships is another important piece of healing. When we can understand how and why we came to be the person perpetuating some kind of injustice, we can then develop radical compassion for those who may perpetuate injustice upon us.

This connects us to those individuals in very deep ways and we begin to understand how our ability to also hold space for the person who hurt us frees us even more deeply than just expressing that pain to the person. Its like a two 2-part process of healing and wholeness. Teresa has great insight and wisdom to offer and you wont want to miss any of it.